"I've always said I wanted to thank him, and I should do it," Rothstein said.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 3,533 people drowned in the U.S. from 2005 to 2009, about 700 per year. But that number was much higher in previous decades before CPR and other life-saving medical innovations became more readily available. According to the Original Watermen, some 9,000 people drowned in the U.S. each year after swimming became a national phenomenon in the early 1900s, and before beaches began to employ lifeguards to help protect swimmers.